Standards Based ..... Whatever

So I had this fairly lengthy twitter conversation (isn't there an acronym for that?) the other night about standards based grading- the new "have to do" thing among the people I follow on Twitter. I first encountered it last summer when I was reading EVERY SINGLE ENTRY in Dan Meyer's great blog (http://blog.mrmeyer.com/).

He had this post about grading on learning outcomes rather than physical assignments that seemed really interesting. I took his ideas and tried to work with them in the context of my classroom, and the results were ok. I probably put more thought into the process the other night when I was trying to explain my process than when I actually did it (is that a good thing- ooh I'm so reflective; or a bad thing- you just kind of did whatever? Don't you analyze everything you do to justify it pedagogically???)

Anyway, here are the basics of how I implemented Standards Based Grading for a semester in Algebra II.

First, I decided to give a formative quiz every 1 to 2 weeks on 3-5 learning standards. At least 2 of the learning standards would be new with 1-2 others presenting review problems. Last year, I used almost all multiple choice questions, but this year the plan is 2 multiple choice questions/1 short answer for each standard.

But where did you come up with your learning standards? Well, I'd like to say that I had a complete curriculum map laid out on the calendar and all that, but I'd be lying. I did come up with a general concept list at the beginning of the year as well as a list of the Course Level Expectations from the State Standards. Unfortunately they were not tightly tied together, and I sometimes even wrote quizzes based on what I had taught over the calendar interval and then assigned groups of questions to a standard (more great planning, eh?)

After administering a quiz, new learning standards went into the gradebook (we use electronic SIS) as a new item worth 5 points. A grade was then assigned based on the number of questions answered correctly on the quiz. Any standards tested for the second time were changed to a 10 point value in the grade book, and the score was based on the two tests of the standard with more weight being given to the second test if the score improved. If there was no improvement, then the scores were just added together.

That really was the extent of the Standards Based part of my gradebook. I still assigned homework and graded upon completion and gave unit tests worth up to 100 points as well as finals at the end of each quarter. If I discerned some improvement on a learning standard on a test over previous quizzes, then I would go back and adjust upward. I did not adjust learning standard scores downward based on tests because it was already impacting their grade.

I honestly don't see big changes this year, just better planning. I could see reducing the homework completion grades because of the rampant copying that goes on. I have great freedom to operate in my classroom, and, to this point, have been spared the End of Course Standardized State Testing, but I don't think my administration, students, and parents are quite ready for me to assign grades without giving tests. We have a consultant working with the district that is pushing more and more benchmark testing to prepare for EOC, but I guess I could incorporate that into my learning standards evaluations. Hmm...